It’s been ten weeks since election day and I desperately hoped something would have happened before Inauguration Day to reassure me.

Yeah, not so much.

Even before the talk of guns and grizzly bears surfaced in our halls of power, the constant stream of petulant, gloating, middle-school-worthy Tweets would have been enough. My millennial daughter with a degree in communications is perpetually flummoxed by the fact our President-Elect still seems to have unfettered access to his Twitter account. While I do love the word flummoxed, horrified is a more apt descriptor for my reaction.

So now what?

As a follower of Jesus, how do I reconcile my responsibility to pray for and respect our leaders on this Inauguration Day with the call to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with my God?

What part does the faith I claim to hold so dearly play in the ways I choose to react to this division in our country and the fears so many of us have about our future under this new administration?

Simply put, in light of our current circumstances, who is God calling me to BE and what is God calling me to DO?

Yesterday during my morning devotion, I read the familiar verse in Hebrews about living a life of faith:

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

As I pondered these familiar words, I dug deeper by reading the Amplified translation on my handy Bible Gateway app. There I found this powerful definition of the word faith:

Faith, which is an inherent trust and enduring confidence in the power, wisdom and goodness of God…

I sat with those words for quite a while and asked myself in the quiet of my own heart if I truly, honestly-with no one else looking- have an inherent trust and enduring confidence in the power, wisdom and goodness of God?

Ultimately, the answer is yes.

At my core, I am indeed a person who has an inherent trust and enduring confidence in the power, wisdom and goodness of God.

I believe God is still in control. I believe God still has the answers. I believe God still loves us completely.

God can. God knows. God cares.

BUT that is only the first verse of the 11th chapter of Hebrews. This chapter has 39 more verses.

The rest of the chapter calls us to remember the “faith in action” Hall of Fame.
One after another, BY FAITH, the heroes of our bible stories made Continue reading →